The Game Master's Guide to Fantasy Mapmaking: Draw Immersive Maps for Dungeons & Dragons and Other Role-Playing Games

by Cody James King

Genres: Nonfiction, Gaming

192 pages, Hardcover

Published July 29, 2025

Reviews

[SAMazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic art book for both beginners and more advanced artists. Every page is rich with instruction and beautiful illustrations to inspire every future mapmaker.
Whether you want to make makes for your tabletop games or fantasy novels, this book gives a stunning overview of ways to tackle all those ideas. The tutorials are broken down into elements and structure in a way for the artist to have endless possible ways to use and merge those skills. Even covering scaling and map purposes to help guide your focus on the layout and design of your map.

I love the first three starter tutorials, and they are the perfect gage to see if this book is for you.

[Rhiannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Followed along with a lot of Cody's tik toks about Map Making, and purchased this asap when it came out, to help me craft a Map for my fantasy novel. Everything is incredibly clear and detailed to follow, can't recommend it enough.

[Simms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll give it credit for what it is, even if it isn't what I wanted it to be. This is mostly an artistic guide - how to physically (or virtually) draw the maps (and things ON the maps) people might use in tabletop games or fantasy novels. What I wanted was something that would explain how to invent the territory described by the map: not the memetic "spill some coffee on a piece of paper and that's the shape of your fantasy archipelago" but how to make a map with realistic geology, geography, hydrology, and so on. There's a bit of that in here, but only a bit, constrained to a couple of pages right at the very end. It's a good book for talking about the actual art, but I don't draw (much less draw fantasy maps); I just wanted something thought-provoking for thinking about how much the fictional maps I run across make physical sense.

[Rebooookah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calling all worldbuilders, GMs, and fantasy nerds! If you've ever dreamed of sketching your own realms, The Game Master's Guide to Fantasy Map Making by Cody James King is your next creative obsession. A D
Whether you're building a continent for your next
D&D campaign or just love the art of fantasy cartography, this guide gives you step-by-step tools to make immersive, jaw-dropping maps.
From volcanoes to sea serpents to cursed castles
—it's all in here.
Trust me: once you start drawing, you won't stop.

[Rikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what you expect. Full of wit and plenty of pop culture references (How could you not have references when it comes to mapmaking? Think maps in any fantasy fiction novel.), each element of map making is mapped out in steps. It is a fun, informative read that will help you develop your map making skills and provide the tools and skills to do so.
This book is now shelved with all my other D&D source material and is something I am going to use and reference a lot in building any D&D campaigns and maps to go with them.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love this how to for how to draw fantasy maps. I love Cody's creative style amd how he makes detailed fantasy cartography super approachable by clearly showing on the page and in the descriptions his thought process through the whole thing. Highly recommend if you are looking to get into fantasy maps and drawing!

[Kat Korpi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cody has written an amazing guide here. I’m not even much of an artist, but his tutorials throughout this book have me DRAWING. plus the text itself is infused with the same wit and humor and earnest helpfulness that we know of him on the internet.

[Kain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful and easy-to-follow guide, even for someone who is not an artist. King's book is an excellent resource that will fuel your creativity and help you develop your world, your stories, and your art skills!

[Kiara Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and informative guide to drawing your own maps! Plus, Cody’s wit and humor is just unmatched in the writing! Definitely recommend for anyone who loves cartography or wants to dip their toes into the illustrative world!